This is a shot of one of my favourite structures, the old end of the pier at St. Annes, on the north west coast of England. I've photographed it many times before but this is one of my definite favourites.

I've also added this one as this week's Mini-PSD as the processing was quite interesting, particularly in terms of balancing the left side of the image with the right. If you've taken a look at the original you'll see that the left-hand third is quite a bit darker than the rest of the image. When I took the shot I thought that this would prove to be an interesting aspect of the final image. The more I worked on it though the less I liked it – it just looked wrong, as though I'd added the extra darkness/density on purpose.

Anyway, after a while I realised that it wasn't going to work so reprocessed it to balance both sides. If you're subscribed to the tutorials and download this Mini-PSD you'll see that the first curve is labelled Curves 17, a fair indication of just how long I messed around with this one before deciding on a strategy that would work :)

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

1.29pm on 20/9/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 24mm f/11.0 1/320 aperture priority +2/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Denoise 16x9

It's been a while since I posted a shot of the old pier at St. Annes, and while this isn't especially dramatic I do like it.

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3.05pm on 26/3/11 Canon 5D Mark II EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM 57mm f/11.0 1/60 aperture priority -1/3 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 Topaz Detail minor

As many of you know, I was back in the UK last month, providing some one-to-one photography and post-production training for Jason Kotecha. We both had a great time, and both got some great shots, but this is the last one I'll be posting; taken moments before we packed up our gear and headed home after a long day's shooting down at St. Annes.

As it was such a great day, I've included all the day's shots below the main image. I hope you enjoy looking through them again as much as I enjoyed shooting and post-producing them.

Coincidentally, Jason posted his last shot today too:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=288

On a related matter, Jason, Catalin Marin and I have just started a new venture: Photoshop tennis. If you're interested in finding out a bit more about it, and seeing our first game, you can do so here:

http://www.facebook.com/Photoshop.Tennis

The basic idea is that each Friday, at or around 4pm GMT, we'll post three different edits of the same RAW file. Initially, we're going to post all three anonymously, but will let you know who produced each version after a day or so. Our first set of images have already generated some interesting responses :)

I don't think I'll ever tire of photographing this former section of St. Annes pier – it's a wonderful structure. Jason also posted another shot yesterday:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=280

In other news: I've recoded my templates to make the 'show the original' feature a bit tidier. I've also added the same functionality to the individual pages in my galleries. As best I can tell, it works as it should, but do let me know if you have any problems with. Oh, and my apologies if you're using IE7 or IE6, but IE is such a dog of a browser to code for that I've disabled the feature rather than spend hours trying to write conditional code and CSS to make it work. If you really need to run IE (hint: get Firefox, or Chrome, or any other browser for that matter) then download version 8.

Oh, and I'm also compiling a list of photoblogs that have a 'show the original image' feature that switches one image for another (i.e. I don't mean ones that have the original and processed images both visible at the same time). So far I've come across these ones:

http://movie.leova.com/ (the earliest example I know about)
http://www.escapism-online.com/ (Jason's site)
http://mynicki.net/
http://www.momentaryawe.com/
http://kevoto.com/
http://alangraham.co.uk/

If you know of any others, or are planning on implementing this feature yourself, let me know and I'll update the list.

Update: here are some more blogs that have been drawn to my attention since I posted this entry:

http://www.batailley.net/
http://www.endlessinstant.com/photoblog/
http://www.andreapress.net/
http://dailypicture.v-raven.de/
http://www.butterweck.de/pholog/
http://photoblog.wojciechjarosz.com/

This is the third image in my St. Annes sunset series (the first two are here and here) and may well be my favourite of the four.

This one was converted to black and white using the channel mixer (as described in my Black and White: part one tutorial), then toned using the selective color tool (see my Toning Colour Images tutorial).

On a related note, and as you'll see if you read the 'latest news' bit below, you can currently sign up for one of three of our Photoshop tutorials for free. Our Toning Colour Images tutorial is one of these so, if you're interested in finding out a bit more about the toning techniques I use for both my colour and black and white images (e.g. curves, selective color, channel mixer), sign up for that one.

This is the second of four sunset shots, all of which were taken on the 9th April down at St. Annes (the first one is here), and despite the similarities between this and the previous one, it was shot over an hour later, just as the sun was dipping towards the horizon. I'll post the other two over the next week or so.

If you're interested Jason's second shot of the same sunset is here …

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=267

… and he's also blogged a shot of me on the pier and some thoughts on how the training went here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=269

As I mentioned when I posted body art #1, Jason and I had gone down to St. Annes to photograph the pier at sunset. As you have already seen though, we ended up shooting a variety of portraits first, but as the evening wore on we got our sunsets too.

I'll be posting four of these over the coming weeks: shot between 6.34pm and 8.09pm on the 11th of this month. All of them feature the old pier at St. Annes, and all are shot from much the same angle, but the sky changed so quickly and dramatically that all four are worth posting.

In terms of the post-production, and as you can see from the original, I didn't do a great deal to this one other than to bump up the contrast (using a Curve) and the saturation (using a masked curve and the Hue/Saturation tool).

Jason's first shot of this scene is here:

http://www.escapism-online.com/blog-entry.php?pid=264

A couple of entries ago I said that my previous would be the last I'd be posting from my various trips out with Craig a few weekends ago, as I'd looked through the hundreds of shots we had taken and couldn't see anything else that would work. Anyway, Craig posted this shot a few days ago, and as I'd shot much the same sequence of images I thought I'd see how mine turned out.

As with my previous couple of shots this is an HDR, constructed with Photomatix Pro, but I've tried to keep the tone mapping quite moderate with this one. It's not entirely what I was after, but in this case I couldn't quite work out how I wanted the final image to look. Initially, I was going for a colour version - much as Craig did - but I just couldn't get the balance between the pier and the sky looking anywhere near natural.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I ended up going for a black and white version that I toned with a Curve.

As always, let me know what you think.

Oh, and in case you haven't seen this structure before, it's both bits of the pier at St. Annes.

Finally, my next HDR class with PPSOP (the Perfect Picture School of Photograph) will be starting on Friday (i.e. the 6th), so if you want to learn a bit more about constructing HDR images you might want to take a look. Alternatively, you can take a look at either or both of my HDR tutorials (details about part one are here, while details about part two are here).

First of all, thanks for all the great comments on my last entry. As always, they're much appreciated.

As for this one: it's been a while since I went down to St. Annes, and even longer since I photographed the pier, so I headed down there this morning. I had intended to shoot some long exposures while this section of the pier was under water, but must have misread the tide times because by the time I got there the tide was already quite some way out.

Anyway, I spent about an hour taking photographs, and can't say that I'm particularly impressed with any of the other shots that I got. I like this one though.

In terms of the post-production: there were two things I concentrated on here - balancing the sky to the foreground (using two masked Curves), and toning the image using a Curve to alter the blue and green channels. If you're interested, I've posted a copy of the original here:

.../archives/tide_down_5.php

I've been meaning to try a panoramic shot for ages and am reasonably pleased with how this has turned out. It was created from seven originals taken at 17mm, using Stitcher. This does a much better job than Photoshop's 'photomerge' function, which is ok for shots with no distortion, but doesn't do a great job with wide angle shots; i.e. there's too much distortion.

Anyway, I'm not entirely convinced that I got the composition right – I probably should have shot the sequence in portrait rather than landscape format, and I think it needs a bit more space on the right – but other than that I think it's probably ok. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and if you're interested, there's a larger version of this image here:

.../archives/caught_in_the_middle.php

I've been struggling for inspiration recently, so rather than attempt something new I revisited one of my favourite haunts today – the pier at St. Annes.

This is the third and final shot in this small series, and as you can see, it's taken from somewhat further away than the other two. Actually, up until getting the 5D this shot wouldn't have been possible as it's shot at 17mm and the remainder of the pier (visible on the right hand side of this shot is at my back; i.e. with the 1.6 crop on the 20D it wouldn't appear to be quite so far away.

As for the three as a whole, I think the first is definitely my favourite, with this one running a reasonably close second. Yesterday's, on the other hand, had many elements that I liked – the toning, the detail, and so on – but the shot as a whole didn't seem to work quite as well as this one and the first one.

As always (though I'm sure you get fed up with me saying this), I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

First of all, thanks for all the comments on yesterday's shot, and for your suggestions regarding beaches and pebbles. I'll check these out over the next day or so and will let you know.

One that looks promising is this one – smooth pebbles, variation in colour, and so on – but it's a bit of a trek from here. Actually, and while I don't think I'm in any danger of becoming a closet geologist, I have found this research quite interesting, not least because the pebbles around the UK vary quite substantially from place to place. In Wales they're grey and smooth, along a fair bit of the south coast they're not quite as uniformly smooth and they're mostly shades of red, brown and yellow, while in Scotland there's more variation in colour ... and so on. I'm simplifying, but you get the idea. Anyway, I'm sure we'll find somewhere suitable soon.

Anyway, back to this image ...

It was processed in much the same way as yesterday's, i.e. it's a combination of three originals shot at different exposures, and while it isn't quite as dramatic as yesterday's I am pleased with the way it turned out.

As always, please let me know what you think.

Oh, and there's a higher res' version here. I've put this one up as a relatively small image as I didn't think it suited being scrolled on smaller screens.

It's been a while since I ventured down to St. Annes to shoot the pier so ventured down this morning, and this is the first of three shots I'll be putting up from the trip.

My intention was to shoot some HDR shots, but when I tried to process them with Photomatix Pro I wasn't especially happy with any of them. So, instead, all three of this small set are produced by overlaying and masking a set of originals shot at varying exposures. This one is made up of four originals, tomorrow's two, and the final one, which I'll put up on Friday, is constructed from three originals.

Oh, and given that these are produced from multiple shots I won't be putting up the EXIF data. Suffice to say that I bracketed widely (from around 1/20 to 1/4000) and this one and Friday's at f/16.0 and tomorrow's at f/8.0.

On a totally different topic, and if you're based in the UK: I need your help. I've been approached about a commission, which on the face of it sounds quite simple – I need one shot of a beach with smooth pebbles that are reasonably large. And that's it; pebbles in the foreground, stretching out towards the sea and the horizon, and nothing else.

'What complicates things though is that the shot has to be perfect, it has to be the ultimate pebble/beach shot. And that would be ok if we had the 'ultimate pebble beach' at either Blackpool, St. Anne's, or Fleetwood, ... but we don't. So, if any of you could recommend a beach, preferably in the North West of England, though anywhere in the UK would do, I'd be extremely grateful. Oh, and if you happen to have a shot of the pebbles/beach you're recommending I'd be even more grateful.

Often, when I put some up that was taken ages ago, I feel almost obligated to apologise for having nothing contemporary to post, but on this occasion I'm not too worried about it as I'm pleased with this one. It's a shot of John, taken in early 2005, and I must have processed this one at least a dozen times (and not been happy with the result). Anyway, I'm happy with this version.

My aplogies, but this is another shot from last summer. I know I should be shooting some new material, but I feel as though the life has been sucked out of me this past week or so. And I've had enough of winter now: I need warmth, sun, time and just some general rest and relaxation. On which disjointed note I'm going to go hibernate until May ;-)

Here's the third and final image in this small series, and despite the rather 'cluttered' feel I think this may be my favourite of the three.

On another matter: if you've experienced any problems with chromasia over the last few days (500 Internal Server errors when posting comments, slow access times, and so on): I am aware of this and hope to get it resolved as soon as possible.

Update: I once had a discussion with another photoblogger who told me that he didn't have comments on his site because he wasn't interested in critique, his site was simply about what he wanted to say to his viewers, not vice versa. Anyway, I guess my view has always been that I need critique, that it's one way of moving forward. All of which is a long way of saying that I've re-edited this image following a number of the early comments (with which, on reflection, I agree). The original, if you're interested, is here:

.../archives/fe2o3_3.php

Let me know how you think they compare. Oh, and I did try a reworked monochromatic version, but couldn't get it right.

Ok, here's the second of my latest 'rusty bits of St. Anne's Pier' series. Of the three this is probably the most conventional, but I like the richness of the rust so didn't want to convert it to a toned image or play around with the colours. Tomorrow's though, by way of contrast, is a toned black and white, and in some ways is probably my favourite of the three.

Oh, and this is my 600th entry. In the scale of things I guess that it's probably not too significant a milestone – it's a long way till I reach 1000 entries – but it's a satisfying feeling nonetheless. That said, it's a rather poor effort compared to yours: as I write this you're posted 13,472 comments and have written 522,695 words :-)

And finally: it seems as though I may be having some server problems – specifically '500 Internal Server' errors. Could you if you have any trouble when you leave your comment?

John and I spent a little over an hour today photographing my favourite structure and this is one of three shots that I'm happy with (though don't know which I prefer). I'll put the other two up over the weekend.

Update: the red and white dots – a couple of people wandering in the distance – have gone. They didn't add anything to the shot so I cloned them out.

Update #2: hmmm, seems my chemistry isn't up to much ;-) I've renamed this entry (from FeO2) as per the suggestions in the comments.

From the vantage point of yesterday's shot: turn 90 degrees to the right and wait about an hour and a half. This is the companion shot to touchdown #1, and I much prefer this one.

Quick update: A couple of people have asked about the (monochromatic) toning on this image but the image wasn't toned. What you see here is a white-balance corrected image. I forget exactly which bit of the image I used as a white/grey point but I didn't do anything else to the colour of this shot. Also, the exposure, despite being five minutes plus, was relatively easy to set; i.e. this would have only been a 20 second exposure at f/4.0. In other words, I just metered at maximum aperture then adjusted the exposure time for f/16. Each stop you close the aperture doubles the exposure time: f/5.6 = 40s, f/8.0 = 80s, and so on.